'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎290] (331/360)

290
THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
kept in a huge porous jar filled with water, which con
tinually oozed from its sides.
During the whole day we lay at anchor in the swelter
ing heat, which penetrated through the deck awnings, and
it was only at night that we went on, and felt an occasional
breeze as we slept on deck, but yet my brother began to
mend the moment we had passed the bar at Fao, and
were out on the real sea again.
A little Arab boy, with his tutor and servants, was the
only first-class passenger except ourselves, and was the
son of a rich Arab chief living near Busreh, who was
sending his child to be educated in an English school at
Bombay. The would-be pupil had two very small boxes
and a roll of carpets and bedding for all his luggage, and
spent his days in sleeping, eating, and chattering. The
servants brought a huge pillau of fowls, rice, and saffron
on a large metal tray twice daily, and round the mat on
which the food was laid the small chieftain, his tutor and
servants would gather happily, and all feed together, using
their fingers most skilfully, while they ate quantities of
hard, unripe dates and pomegranates with much relish in
between meal-times.
When we lay off Bahrein a number of tall, well-dressed
Arabs came on board, holding amber rosaries in their
hands, to pay their respects to the young chief, who was
stuck upon a small camp-stool by his tutor, this latter
squatting humbly behind his charge, and fanning him
assiduously. The handsome visitors salaamed the small
boy with much ceremony, some of them kissing him on the
shoulder, and it certainly was a case of " uneasy lies the
head that wears a crown," for the poor child soon grew ex
cessively tired of his novel position, and his back was bent